Playing With Fire (Phoenix Fire #3)(51)
Author: Cynthia Eden

Cassie shoved Dante again. “Stay away from him! From me!”

He couldn’t. He couldn’t ever stay away from her.

She fell to her knees beside the werewolf. Smoke drifted from him and dark burns covered his arms. “Trace?” she whispered.

His head turned toward her. “Help . . .” he whispered.

She put her hand on his bulging shoulder. “You did help me. Now just relax. Please relax, and let me help you.”

The werewolf’s claws were too close to her. Dante stepped toward her.

Cassie’s head immediately turned toward him. Tears glistened in her eyes. “Stay away! Haven’t you done enough hurting for one day?”

She stared at him as if—as if he were the monster.

He was, but Cassie had never looked at him that way before.

“Cain, help me,” Cassie said.

Cain, still bleeding, hurried toward her.

“We need to get Trace downstairs. I have to treat him. He’s . . . changing. I can feel it.”

Transformation was the way werewolves healed from injuries. It was instinctive for them. The wounds Trace had received from Dante’s fire were pushing that change.

“If he changes fully,” Cassie said, shaking her head, “I don’t—I don’t know if we will be able to get him back. I have to give him some tranqs to get him calm and stable.”

The werewolf wasn’t fighting. His head was tilted toward Cassie, and the beast seemed to hang onto her every word.

Siren.

“It’s okay,” Cassie soothed him. “I’ll take care of you.”

Dante heard the special, almost lyrical notes in her voice that a siren got only when she charmed.

The werewolf ’s breathing eased.

Cain was close to them. He frowned down at Cassie and blinked a few times.

Yeah, you heard it, too.

“Will he make it?” Eve wanted to know. She’d helped Charles to his feet. The human was pale, scratched, but suffering no mortal wound.

Dante knew her question was about Trace.

“I hope so,” Cassie said, still using that same tone. The tone that calmed Dante’s phoenix, that had Cain looking confused . . . and had the wolf lying still beneath Cassie’s probing touch.

And the woman claimed she wasn’t a siren?

She had them all under her power.

Once she realized just how strong she truly was, Cassie could prove to be incredibly dangerous.

As dangerous as Zura, when she’d gone mad with her power.

She turned us on each other. Made us fight until only ash was left.

All with the power of her voice.

The phoenixes had learned a lesson that day . . . stay away from their own kind. They weren’t immortal when their own were close enough to kill.

It had taken just the whisper from a siren to start that war. “We have to get him to the lab,” Cassie said.

Cain bent to reach for the werewolf ’s shoulders.

Trace snapped at him, biting the phoenix and drawing a curse from Cain.

“Trace, no!” Cassie commanded. “We’re helping you!”

He stilled instantly.

Cain frowned down at the beast. “If he bites me again, I’m kicking his ass.”

“Cain.” Eve’s voice was worried.

Dante grabbed the wolf before Cain could reach for him again. He slung Trace over his shoulder and ignored the claws that sliced into his skin.

Cassie stared up at Dante with shocked eyes.

“You want him back in his cell?”

He was actually tossing another paranormal in a cell? After what he’d been through?

But . . . yes, he was.

“Then lead the way,” Dante said.

Cassie just stared blankly at him then shook her head. “Give him to Cain. I can’t trust you.”

That ache was back in Dante’s chest. Worse.

But he gave her a grim smile. “You have it wrong, sweetheart. We’re the ones who can’t trust you.” Not once she started to use her power. Not once she realized . . .

She could control and kill with a word.

Cain frowned at Cassie but his stare wasn’t exactly believing. He glanced back at Dante. “You going to try to kill me as soon as the elevator touches down?”

“No. I’ll wait till we drop off the wolf.” Dante stared down Cain. “Then you and I will leave the others. There’s no sense in harming them.”

“No!” Eve immediately yelled.

Cain gave a grim nod.

Cassie pushed her way on the elevator. “The hell you will. Dante, you aren’t hurting Cain. You aren’t hurting anyone.” She jabbed his arm.

No, she jabbed a needle into his arm.

An icy liquid shot through his body, chilling him, quenching the fire of the phoenix that always seemed to burn so brightly within him.

The werewolf fell from his arms. Dante sagged back, hitting the elevator wall.

“I won’t let you hurt anyone,” Cassie said, her voice breaking with pain.

Pain that he had caused her?

“I never wanted it to be this way.” Cassie’s voice was so soft and sad.

He tried to turn his head and look at her, but couldn’t. His body slid down and crashed onto the floor of the elevator beside Trace.

“You didn’t give me a choice.”

“Damn.” Cain’s impressed drawl. “I didn’t expect you to be so cold, Cassie.”

“Neither did he. And that was Dante’s mistake.”

Deep inside, the flames of the phoenix died away.

CHAPTER TWELVE

“He’s gonna be pissed when he wakes up.” Cain dropped Dante’s body in the cell—a reinforced cell that Cassie had never used before.

“I’ll deal with his anger,” Cassie said. And he could deal with hers. He’d been using her—all along. He’d never intended to help. He’d only wanted to kill.

It felt like the jerk had carved out her heart. Or maybe he’d just burned it out of her chest with his damn fire.

Cain glanced toward the chains. She saw his face tighten and knew he was remembering his own time with Genesis.

“You putting him in those?” he asked, voice flat.

“No.” She’d never thought she would actually be the one locking Dante up. But she’d thought wrong. “The room will be secure enough. It’s fireproof. He won’t be getting out unless we let him out.”

Cain nodded.

Cassie glanced down at Dante once more. His eyelashes cast dark shadows beneath his eyes. His face was still tense and hard, even when he was unconscious. As if he never let down his guard.